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Wednesday, August 31, 2016

What I didn't finish, and why

Lately, I've found myself not finishing some books, and while I don't like to write reviews of books I haven't finished, I thought it might be useful to talk about why I let them go. I'll say right here: it's not always because they are bad books. In fact, it's usually just because they aren't the right books and the right time. That said, here are a couple of books I let expire, and (to the best of my ability to suss out) the reasons why.

The Road to Little Dribbling, by Bill Bryson
Yup, that's right: I DNF'd a book by the famously witty Bill Bryson. As a matter of fact, this didn't totally surprise me. I had a love-hate relationship with A Walk in the Woods (yes, he made me laugh, but he also made me want to throw the book across the room with his lack of knowledge and planning, utter ignorance of good hiker etiquette and Leave No Trace principals, etc.). I enjoyed his book about Australia, but then when I read the one on the US, I found that when he wrote about places I know well his version was often shallow, misguided, or just plain wrong.

So I did start Little Dribbling with some trepidation, and it was justified. There was much less than usual of interesting history and stories and description of places, and much more griping about things that have changed in 20 years (I get that; I break my heart over some things that have changed, and not for the better. But as a theme for the book? Not good). But the final straw was that his humor seems to have become mean-spirited. I almost quit when he recounted tormenting a McDonald's employee for doing his job. I did quit after his excoriation of a shop owner who didn't seem to care if Bryson stayed or went. Really, Bryson? He ends up sounding not only like a grumpy old man, but a grumpy rich old man who is kind of annoyed by all the common people around him.

(Credit where it's due: I've enjoyed Bryson's historical work, At Home: A Short History of Private Life and The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got that Way. Regarding that latter, knowing he'd written it and done his research, I was surprised at his rant in this new book about...English spelling. You explained that to us, man).

The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries, by Emily Brightwell
This is a completely different case. The book is fine, really. Well-written and a bit humorous, and all that. But...it's not grabbing me, and after a bit of thought, I think I know why. Actually, it's the same problem as Bryson has, in a way: the humor comes at the expense of someone. I've had issues with this in other books I've read, where a character is presented as just kind of a comic bungler. When it's the main character in a mystery, it kind of works--after all, they manage to solve the crime. It works even better when the bumbling character is the narrator, because that's just humorous self-deprecation and we can take it for what it's worth. But in this case, I feel like the Inspector is just a patsy to allow Mrs. Jeffries to be the smart one. I get the plot device. The author has found a way to avoid the biggest problem of the amateur detective, their difficult position vis-a-vis the police. But.

My take-away: snark is a dangerous weapon. Self-directed snark by a 1st-person narrator is pretty safe, but beyond that, things get risky.

Note: I hesitated about putting this one on here, because for all I know the Inspector will get the last laugh and prove not to be an idiot after all. But I kind of doubt it. For now, I'm leaving the book on my MP3 player and may finish at some point. In which case, if I am more satisfied, I'll write a real review.

Other books
There have been some other books I've not finished, books that I won't name. Those have been books with deeper flaws, often: historical inaccuracies, poor writing or editing, etc. I don't need to reflect much to know why I drop a book with those problems. But I had to think about why I might dump a book with good prose, a strong plot, and a professional proof-reader. I hope it gives me food for thought for my own writing.

How about you? Do you leave books unfinished? If so, do you ever analyze why?

Glen--I'm a huge fan of Chuck Wendig :) Now you post that, I remember that post, though I'm not sure I finished reading it (it posted the day I left to help my mom move, so I was a bit distracted). To me, the important thing is to look at *why* I don't finish so I can avoid the same mistakes, if they are mistakes.

Same here. I normally always finish, but this year I've struck a few that I felt it wasn't worth continuing. I didn't rate or review them, just marked them as read on Goodreads. What doesn't work for me may work for others, so I'd rather others make up their own mind.

There are some things that I think should be a red flag to anyone, but I never cease to be amazed at readers who don't have an issue with typos and grammatical errors. Maybe not everyone is as OCD about that as I am? :)

I probably DNF about a quarter of the books I start. Part of it is that I like to try all sorts of different things and some just don't appeal to me, but the biggest killer in fiction is a middle part that drifts. Lots of books start well but wander into excessive detail that doesn't actually say anything or advance the plot. (yes, I get bored easily) I'm not much bothered by the typos or grammar problems, but you had better have a strong plot that you keep moving and characters who make me want to know them (Gorg, Gorg, Gorg!).

In the non-fiction world I tend to plow on through regardless, but that's because I have different motivation for those.

It is few and far between that I intentionally do not finish a book. That being said I have 4 books sitting on my goodreads currently reading shelf and I haven't touched them in a long time, but I do plan to get back to them.

However, on a trip I picked up one of the Dark Shadows books. The blurb sounded interesting. My mom used to watch the TV series, so I thought why not? At first it was very interesting. The parts about Barnabas were enjoyable. This was one of those books with two main characters and you would switch between the two for action. It was that second part that became so gruesome I had to stop. I expected some gore when the blurb mentioned voodoo, but the stuff happening to the adolescent "voodoo goddess"...those are mental pictures I do not need. And I'm the kind of person where those mental pictures stay with me and sometimes create flashbacks. Nope. Did not finish that one.

I agree, Poe is creepy. Older horror like that kind of sneaks up on you. I easily walk by Stephen King's works without a second glance. I'm only familiar through pop culture and the one episode of Quantum Leap. I have read a couple Anne Rice; not sure how she falls.